Word to the wise #4: I guess I'm on a common courtesy kick this week. Bear with me.....it will pass. :)  So... you're a server in a restaurant. Big or small, busy or not, upscale or dinky....it doesn't matter. Take your pick. You've had a really long day. Maybe it started off good, maybe it started off bad. Maybe you have a lot of personal stuff going on at home creating extra stress. Maybe you're on cloud nine and everything is going well. Who knows.

Whatever the situation and no matter how you're feeling, IF you expect to earn an extra monetary compensation completely reflective of your table-side manner (better known as a TIP), you will want to be very certain that you treat each customer like they are your first for the day....like your day has been the best you've ever had, like you absolutely LOVE your job and really want to be serving them.  Be mindful that your customer just may have had a bad day, too, and that you could be the one person to turn that bad day around. Become the customer and think for a moment, 'How much tip would I leave if that had been my server?'